Agenda: Meeting Minutes from September 30, 2013 | Outreach Committee | NCNMLG Poster | Quint Chapter Meeting | MLA Chapter Council Discussion | Treasurer | NCNMLG PO Box | Reimbursement Invoice |
Attendees:
By phone: Raquel Abad, Chezire Aclimandos, Mina Davenport, Xan Goodman, Julia Hause, Carmen Huddleston, Deanna Johnson, Stephen Kiyoi, Heidi Mortenson-Torres, Claire Sharifi, Amy Studer
Time: 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Conference call only: Number: 1.866.740.1260 Access Code: 7343870
Meeting called to order at 10:10 am by Raquel Abad
Old Business
1. Minutes from the September 13, 2013 Executive Board Meeting – Amy Studer
Minutes were approved without corrections. (Moved by Xan; Seconded by Claire)
Amy reported that she has caught up with posting agendas and minutes to the NCNMLG blog, with the exception of the agenda from May 24, 2013 Business Meeting.
Action item: Amy will follow up with Carmen to get a copy of this agenda and then post.
Amy also brought up the issue of the archiving policy for minutes and agendas. She asked the question about whether there is a formal archiving policy. Xan mentioned that she has some notes about what is included in the archives that she will share.
Action item: Carmen will follow-up with Polina Ilieva about archiving minutes / agendas and look through the minutes from last year (and copy Amy). Xan will share her notes about the process.
New Business
2. Outreach Committee – Xan Goodman
A. Outreach Committee is planning an event on Wed., April 16th event 3-4:30 pm at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Conference Rooms A & B.
They will be inviting SJSU faculty / students /alumni, Diablo Valley Community College, San Francisco City College, and non-renewing NCNMLG members. Chezire, Stephen, and Carmen recommended various additional approaches to marketing, including NCNMLG blog; Facebook; CAPHIS, Hospital Library, and CALIX listservs; and Alan Carr at PSR.
Xan presented food options and requested NCNMLG funding support for food.
Low budget:
Raley’s catering (Bel Air / Nob Hill location at Mountain View Shopping Center at Grant and El Camino)—sliced wraps (vegetarian and meat options), cookies, vegetable tray, drinks, napkins, plates, cups, paper towels ($151)
High budget:
Eric’s Deli Café—sliced wraps (meat and vegetarian options), paper items, cookies, fruit, vegetable tray, drinks ($206)
Stephen asked how attendance is going to be estimated. Xan estimates attendance at 20-30 people. Stephen recommended that we have people RSVP.
Carmen asked about the time of day for the event. Late afternoon may be an advantage for some attendees and a disadvantage for others.
Xan is flying in for the event and working with Julia, Judith Mills, Mike Liddicoat, and others in the area to carry out the event. Chezire offered to help as well.
Activities that are planned for the event include: a raffle with gift cards, get-to-know you bingo. Xan is donating the gift cards and will submit paperwork to NCNMLG to receive a donation letter for tax purposes.
The group discussed the amount to allocate for the event and decided to build some flexibility and buffer into the budget.
Carmen moved that we fund up to $225 for the Outreach event. There was unanimous support for this by attendees including absentee approval by Judith Mills. Funding was approved.
Group members thanked Xan, Julia, Judith, and Mike for contributing to this impressive event.
Action item: Xan to provide information about event to Chezire for NCNMLG blog.
B. NCNMLG table cloth update:
Care instructions: 100% polyester, washable. Do not dry clean. Cold/dry on low heat. Store in special storage box, not plastic.
Action item: Xan will follow-up with Deanna about ordering the table cloth and payment method.
3. NCNMLG Poster – Carmen Huddleston
Do we want to create a poster for MLA in May? Deanna, Raquel, Amy, and Claire offered to help. Claire’s work may be able to print the poster. Carmen identified a co-worker, Jean Johnson, who would like to coordinate it. Stephen wondered if we could create the poster in time for the April outreach event in Mountain View. Stephen also recommended providing a takeaway flier for poster session attendees and a schedule of NCNMLG members to staff the poster presentation at MLA.
Action item: Carmen will forward the guidelines for the poster once MLA provides them.
4. Quint Chapter Meeting – Judith Mills
Judith was unable to attend the meeting.
Raquel noted that the Quint Meeting website is up and she will send out a save the date email. Also, Raquel reported that speakers are more or less confirmed, but signed contract letters are not signed yet. Registration will open around May 1st.
Action item: Raquel will send out a save the date email to NCNMLG members. Chezire will post details to the NCNMLG blog.
5. MLA Chapter Council Discussion — Mina Davenport
Mina has received a request from MLA for chapters to support two lunch tickets to the Chapter Roundtables in May ($50 each). The lunch ticket support is for new MLA members. The group discussed what would be the appropriate number to support and decided that two would be a good number. Carmen moved that we sponsor two lunches at the MLA roundtable ($100 total) and the group unanimously agreed.
6. NCNMLG PO Box — Carmen Huddleston
Carmen reports that we need to determine how we will move forward with the PO Box that is currently in Berkeley. Carmen contacted NCNMLG members in Berkeley area about picking up mail – no one has been able to take this on. Judith Mills has offered to pick up the mail if we move the PO Box to the Sunnyvale area.
Action item: The group agreed that it is time to move the PO Box, deciding to move the box to Sunnyvale. (See Section 10.D for a continuation of the discussion about moving the PO Box.)
7. Reimbursement Invoice — Carmen Huddleston
Carmen reported that PSR is unable to reimburse Carmen directly for refreshment expenses from the program in January. Alan Carr has recommended the following reimbursement process:
• NCNMLG send an invoice to PSR requesting reimbursement for personal funds that Carmen spent on refreshments for the program.
• After NCNMLG receives the reimbursement check from PSR, NCNMLG will write a check to Carmen covering costs.
The group agreed that this approach made sense.
Action item: NCNMLG will invoice PSR for $200 so that Carmen can be reimbursed. Carmen will follow up with Deanna.
8. Policy Manual – Carmen Huddleston
Carmen brought up the issue of the uncertain status of the NCNMLG Policy & Procedure Manual. Two years ago it was updated and the Committees were changed, but it needed to go through a review / approval process at MLA.
Chezire identified three core NCNMLG documents and clarified the status of each:
• A description of NCNMLG’s five committees: Chezire holds a copy. There is uncertainty about whether committee descriptions have been approved by MLA; therefore, they are not yet posted online, pending MLA approval.
• NCNMLG Bylaws: These are current and posted online
• NCNMLG Policy & Procedure Manual: This document is very outdated.
Action item: Carmen would like to get the current committee responsibilities posted. She will check the status of the policy manual with Rebecca Davis (and copy Raquel). Carmen will ask Judith if she has updates to contribute.
9. Website – Chezire Aclimandos
Chezire has announced that Amy has agreed to be co-editor of the blog.
Shannon Meaney has volunteered to serve as the third tri-chair for the 2016 Joint Meeting with Claire and Chezire. The group expressed gratitude.
10. Treasurer — Deanna Johnson
A. Deaendnna presented the current financial report for the group’s review (see Appendix A).
B. How often should PayPal funds be transferred to checking account?
The group discussed various approaches. Deanna reports that deposits to account vary based on membership dues cycle. Amy asked if PayPal would be used to pay for any expenses, such as the tablecloth. If so, would there be a benefit to leaving some amount of money in the PayPal account? Deanna reports that PayPal costs $5/month—she does not believe there is a fee for transferring money out of the account.
Carmen recommended that we keep $200 balance in the account and that the treasurer transfers funds from PayPal to checking account when there is a period of more activity with deposits. There was general agreement from the group.
C. Should we try to move all accounting records, including bank statements to electronic versions?
Deanna reports that she is maintaining paper records in the Treasurer’s binder. Chase account is sending monthly paper statements. Should we switch to electronic records for Chase? Should we change to electronic formats for the rest of the Treasurer’s documents? So many things are now .pdf or emails at this point. Is it time for the Treasurer to stop printing out the electronic documents?
Chezire reports that the website has one more un-used email account. We could set it up that the financial statements go to that email. Deanna asked to hold off for now, so that a transfer can be timed with a new Treasurer, so that passwords can be updated.
Carmen asked Deanna about archiving practices. Deanna has created an annual Treasurer’s Report for MLA at the end of each year, which she can submit for archiving.
Deanna currently has Treasurer’s records going back seven years. Amy asked about how often Deanna needs to refer to the older records, noting that there is a difference between archiving and having access to recent year’s records to assist with current chapter finances. Chezire said that there is server space available, if storage is needed.
Action items: Deanna wants to check out what email she already has access to for PayPal and Survey Monkey and will report back. Deanna will start experimenting with electronic files and how a conversion to electronic might work, including saving to CD/flash drive. Carmen is going to ask Polina Ilieva about archiving financial statements at the end of the year.
D. Moving the NCNMLG PO Box: Continuation of Discussion
Deanna reported that the Berkeley mail center is paid through 2013 and we have not paid for 2014 yet. Deanna gets new membership checks from the membership chair and monthly bank statements from the PO Box. Deanna is concerned about how to coordinate the transition and updating addresses with outside entities (MLA, Chase, PayPal, Survey Monkey, membership), especially if the box needs to be moved again in the future. Chezire wondered if it would be more convenient for Deanna to have it in Davis. Amy offered to pick up mail if it is moved to a PO Box in Davis. The group agrees that the box needs to be moved; it is a matter of deciding where and then changing addresses.
Action item: Amy will check with Davis Post Office about P.O. Box availability and cost and get back to the group by email. Addresses that will need to be changed include: MLA, Chase, PayPal, Survey Monkey, and the NCNMLG online membership form.
Meeting adjourned by Carmen Huddleston at 11:53 am.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Amy Studer, Secretary. Draft: February 21, 2014 Final: May 9, 2014
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Appendix A: NCNMLG 2013_14 Budget 2014-02-04